Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com

Aporrheton 5
The Craft Laws
(Marked 4/73 by Judy Harrow; author not noted)
ManytraditionsabouttheCraft arescatteredthroughoutrecent
books; a sizable bunch is the 161 "Craft Laws" you can find in Lady
Sheba or in June Johns. Many of these traditions are merely defini-
tions of what the Craft is, and so of the context within which the
other traditions should be understood; they are "true" merely because
(and insofar as) they are internally consistent. In contrast, some of
the other traditions seem to be shrewd, hard-won observations about
how psychic energy (as dealt with in the Craft) seems to work, and
THESE are the important ones.
The psychicreality that these traditionsconcern has been
called by many names: spiritualists call it "the upper astral plane";
Jungians, the "superconscious"; the Bhagavad Gita, "the True Self";
many mystics, the "godhead"; Isaac Bonewits, the "Switchboard"; and
very much so on. Any such name is an attempt to map (part of) a
psychic reality that seems all too willing to accomodate itself to any
map you use, and you will get nowhere in trying to understand that
reality if you don't keep its Plasticity firmly in mind. In the Craft
we conceive that reality as the Goddess (as #11 below states); She is
both very real and a metaphor. She is real because human energy goes
into making Her real; She exists as a "thought form on the astral
plane," yet She can manifest physically whenever She wants to. She
does not exist independently of mankind, but She is most thoroughly
independent of any one person or group. (And precisely the same is
true of any concept of divinity that people put energy into maintain-
ing.) She is a metaphor because, great though She may be, She is
finite, like any other human concept, whereas reality is infinite. And
why do we need the Goddess, or any divinity at all? Because the human
mind seems unable to grasp an undifferentiated infinity. By creating
our own divinities, we create mental steps for ourselves, up which we
can mount, toward relizing ourselves as divine.
TheCraft Laws,then, arenot "13Commandments" fromon high;
they are merely unproved hypotheses about how SOME psychic reality
seems to work. They should be treated like any other hypotheses:
respected as being the best guesses going, but continually tested to
find out how valid they are and to generate better guesses. Naturally,
you cannot test them by breaking them, any more than you can test the
law of gravity by jumping off a ten-story building. Instead, you draw
conclusions from them, or base predictions on them, and try workings
to see if the latter hold up. The 13 below are ones that have held up
so far under such testing; some we had in an earlier set of 13 did
not. In compiling this set, I culled through all the traditions I
could find, picking out especially (or thinking up) the most general
statements, which would include many of the other traditions as
special cases; you should be able to spot examples of this by careful-
ly comparing Aporrheton 10 with this one. Certain of the laws here
(the ones typed in all caps) seem necessary and reliable to us, and we
will not tolerate any bending (let alone breaking) of them, for the
reasons discussed under #12 below. Many of the rest are here, not
because we understand them, but because we don't.
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I always approach traditional occult systems (astrology, the
Tarot, the Craft, etc.) on the assumption that they consist of a
terse, ultileveled coding of hard-earned information about something
real and important. It is almost as silly to think you've discovered
everything such a system might mean as it is to think it meaningless.
The only way to find out what such a system means is to get in there
and work with it until you speak its language fluently. Then you will
likely find (at least, this has been my experience) that the system
gives you a map of reality, but of many places, not just one place,
that it gives you a way to work with classes of realtionships that
hold for many different kinds of people, things, and situations. That
is, these traditional systems are very much like nonquantitative
algebras or calculi; a symbol in one of them is not going to have an
invariant and simple meaning, or even the same meaning in two dif-
ferent contextx, anymore than X is going to have the same numerical
value in two different algebra problems.
It therefore seems safest to keep these Craft laws whose
meanings are not obvious in mind, and hope that further "experiment-
ation" will shed some light on them. Of course, to get any results at
all in dealing with psychic phenomena, you have to be optimistic and
openminded. If you already hold a firm belief that you know what the
Craft Laws mean, or that they are "Absolutely True," or the opposite,
then your mind is closed, and you can't learn anything new. That is,
you're not supposed to "believe" in the Craft Laws, or memorize them;
you're supposed to UNDERSTAND them, else you've missed the whole point
of why we have them.
1. YOU CANNOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO CREATE OR INCREASE BAD
KARMA, EXCEPT FOR YOURSELF.
2. YOUMAY NOT USETHE ARTS OF THECRAFT TO AFFECTANOTHER PERSON
IN ANY WAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE THAT PERSON'S EXPLICIT PERMISSION.
These two are best discussed together, since they replace the
inadequate statement one often finds that "You may not use the arts of
the Craft to work malevolent magic." Notice that the first one says
"cannot," being an observation of fact, wherease the second says "may
not," being a statement of ethics.
Thefirst lawstates that,INTHE LONGRUN, youcan harmno one
but yourself. You cannot benefit from trying to harm another, because
you are part of the fabric of reality, not separate from it. You get
whatever you give, because getting and giving are the same, just as
the trough and the crest are the same wave./ If you set up a pattern
of nasty, callous selfishness around yourself, that is what you have
projected onto the world, and that is all you will experience. If you
act out of genuine affection and concern for others, you receive their
affection and concern as well. The psychic (or life) field seems to
have a single polarity: to create positive effects for yourself, you
must create positive effects for others. And this observation applies
not just to the arts of the Craft, nor to all the psychic arts, but to
life in general.
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Now, whatthe second law pointsout is that itis the OTHER
person's opinion that determines whether the effects of what you do
are positive or not. This law is the equivalent of the Craft's version
of the "Golden Rule": "Do unto others not as YOU wish to be done
under, but as THEY wish to be done unto--for their tastes may damned
well differ from yours." (Thus this law, most usefully, eliminates any
arguments over how one defines "good" or "evil.") It follows that you
may not do something for what YOU think is someone else's "own good";
you have no right to make that decision. You may not even work a
healing unless you have permission from the person to be healed; it is
unethical to hit an unprepared person with a jolt of energy. You may
work without prior permission for someone whose karma you are already
PERSONALLY involved with (as a mother for her child, a man for his
wife, etc.), but you may not accept anyone's opinion that another
would give permission if asked; no matter how close two people might
be, they neither own one another nor carry each other's karma, and so
cannot give such permission to another.
3. You cannot usethe arts of theCraft to win fame, fortune,
power, or any other sort of material or social advantage.
Thisagainis anobservation ofhow allthe psychicarts work,
not just those of the Craft. WHY they work thus is another question---
THAT they do work thus is well-known. Perhaps the simplest explanation
is that if your major motive for working is (or becomes) a desire for
fame, fortune, etc., you soon get into a headspace where psychic
abilities simply cannot function; many erstwhile psychics throughout
history have lost their abilities and become charlatans, because they
did not know this rule. You can (as many people do) make your living
by a psychic art, as long as you charge only enough to live comfortab-
ly by your society's standards; it is only going on a "power trip"
that would endanger your abilities. Similarly, doing trips on people
without their knowledge (or the magician's favorite project,
raising "demons" in order to control them) is another sort of power
trip, and will have exactly the same effect on your abilities. A more
traditionals Craft statement of this rule would be, "The arts of the
Craft are the gift of the Goddess; if you misuse them, She will take
them back."
4.You cannot usethe arts ofthe Craft forshow, in pretence, but
only in earnest, and only in need.
If youwork aritual, itwill haveeffects, whetheryou think
you want it to or not. Therefore you cannot "pretend" to throw a hex,
for example; the Lady does not recognize pretence. On the other hand,
you cannot work the arts successfully just because you WANT to, as a
head trip; the Lady won't cooperate. You have to need the energy or
the information for some real purpose, else you can't tap into it. (At
least, this is what meaning I have seen in this law so far.)
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5. The arts ofthe Craft can onlybe worked in acircle with at
least one other person of the opposite sex.
This "law" is actually just a set of definitions, though
important ones, as follows. (a) The arts of the Craft are defined as
those that will work only under these conditions; psychic arts that
work under other conditions are thus not necessarily part of the
Craft. (b) A coven consists of at least one man and one woman; it
cannot consist of all men or all women. (c) If you're working by
yourself, you are working as a magician, not as a witch--but you are
still obliged by your oaths to the Lady to observe the other Craft
Laws. (For more on this last point, see #12.)
6.A man must learn the arts of the Craft from a woman, a woman
from a man, except between parent and child.
Since#5 definesthe artsof theCraft asthose thatonly work
in the circle, obviously they can only be learned in the circle. If
you're working with just one other person, that person must be of the
opposite sex, else the arts won't work, and nothing can be learned.
Thus it seems logical that this tradition applies only to a one-to-one
teacher-apprentice relationship. If you're not in the circle, and/or
are teaching a mixed group of men and women, obviously there's no
problem. (This tradition MAY imply that the arts WILL work for two
women if they are mother and daughter, or for father and some, since
part of the key to the working, and the learning, seems to be the
emotional closeness between the two; consider section IV, last para,
in Aporrheton 10.)
7. You mustalways pay whateverprice is asked,without haggling
or complaining, when you buy something to be used for the
Craft.
TheGardnerian Craft Laws (sectionIV, para 4,of Apor. 10)
allow the arts of the Craft to be used to persuade someone to sell
something, as long as his asking price is met, but this would violate
our Law #2. In contrast, this law here is a safeguard against using
your psychic talents not-quite-consciously to take unfair advantage of
someone.
8. You cannot belong to more than one coven at a time.
Any two covens willlikely have rather different symbolic
systems for their workings, different understandings of the Craft
Laws, and so on. Trying to work with both would then tend to confuse
you, snarl up your communication lines to the Lade, and reduce the
efficiency of your learning and working. Of course, if two covens do
have identical systems (which could only happen if they shared a
common ancestry), they could be considered the same cove, for the
purposes under discussion here.
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Inits originalcontext (seesection III,Apor. 10),this law
seems merely an observation of fact: even if you're working with two
or more covens, you will only BELONG to one of them; your loyalty will
be with that one, and if there were a parting of the ways, you would
stick with it. Obviously, in time of persecution, divided loyalties
and disagreements could be a source of great danger, and would have to
be forbidden. Also, in a Craft structure where the High Priestess has
final authority within each coven, she would not much like having a
Witch she is trying to train be influenced by another Priestess. True,
these considerations don't apply to us, but they are valid as reasons
for the tradition.
9. None can coven with others they cannot agree with.
Statedthis way,this lawbecomes anetymological tautology,
for "coven" means "to agree" (or "to come together"). The more those
in a coven can agree on the interpretation of the Craft Laws, on the
symbolic system used for workings, on the purposes of the workings,
the greater the coven's effectiveness will be. Naturally, minor
disagreements will crop up regularly in a group of individualists;
they are not what this law concers. Rather, it applies to disagree-
ments (or bad interpersonal feelings) that are strong enough that they
are amplified by the group field, make the meeting unpleasant, and so
make it impossible for the coven to work. For this reason--not, one
may hope, out of mere in-group exclusiveness or arbitrariness--acoven
must select its members carefully for compatibility. Also, since a
coven is necessarily a "small group," many normal small-group proc-
esses will operate in it. These can be powerful, and emotionally very
heavy, but there's nothing mysterious about them. Don't mistake them
for something occult; that would lead you up a blind alley.
10. You must not betray the secrets that cannot be told.
Thesecrets in question hereare Her secrets,the ones dis-
cussed in the Caution to the Novices. Insofar as these Craft Laws are
simply observations of how psychic reality works (and it is for that,
really, that we should value them) then they are "self-enforcing" like
any other statement of fact. So what this law means is: (a) Don't
commit suicide; (b) Don't violate your own sense of your self-integ-
rity; (c) Don't "sell your soul to the devil"; (d) If you stick your
finger in a flame, you'll get burned.
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11. ALL POWER IN THE CRAFT COMES FROM THE GODDESS.
This lawis anotherobservation about howpsychic reality
works. The energy that is raised in the circle comes not from any one
person, nor from all the persons in the coven as individuals, but from
somewhere else: from the Goddess, or from some source ever further
beyond. Such energy, like all psychic energy, comes THROUGH you, not
from you; it is not your personal property, for you are merely a
channel for it, a custodian of it. You do "own" your body and your
individual personality, and you are entitled to the fruits of your
labors, but the energy is not yours to exploit for your own benefit,
for any human being could (potentially) learn to do anything you can
do. Therefore, although you have a right to earn a living, the Craft
is free to all, being a gift of the Goddess: you may not charge anyone
even a penny to be initiated into the Craft or to learn its arts. Of
course, you should insist on having your actual expenses covered; the
Craft Laws do not require you to operate at a loss or to coddle
freeloaders. But you may not make money from practicing the Craft as a
religion, and if you try, you will lose all access to the power. This
law also means that the only genuine initiations in the Craft are
those worked (though not necessarily directly) by the Goddess Herself.
That is, if you have the power from the Goddess, credentials from
other people are unnecessary, and if you don't have any power from
the Goddess, credentials from other people are useless. Hence there
can be no authority in the Craft outside each coven.
Thislaw alsoprovides anotherdefinition: anypowerthat comes
from the Goddess could be part of the Craft; so any poet who has
experienced the reality of the Muse is, to that extent, a Witch.
Conversely, any energy that cannot be conceptualized as coming from
the Goddess (and apparently there ARE such forms of the energy) is
definitely not part of the Craft. (The tradition that the Priestess is
supreme within the circle also appears to be a special case of this
law, insofar as only the Priestess can incarnate the Goddess.)
12. IFSOMEONE INTENDS TO HARMYOU, YOU MAY USETHE ARTS OF THE
CRAFTTO RESTRAINHIM FROM DOINGSO, BUT ONLYIF ALL INTHE
COVEN AGREE THAT HE WILL IN NO WAY BE HARMED BY THE WORKING.
No matterwhat the provocation,trying to harmanother will
only create bad karma for yourself. So, although you have an absolute
right to protect yourself, you must not retaliate. As is said in K'ung
Fu, "Solve the problem, no less, no more." The reason why the coven
must discuss the situation and agree on the workings is twofold: (1)
to allow cooler minds to prevail, for it is when one acts on impulse,
out of anger, that one is most likely to overstep the line between
self-defense and aggression; and (2) because those in the coven,
having taken an oath to help one another, and being linked by the
generation of the group psychic field, will all share to some extent
in any bad karma generated by any member's misuse of the arts. If you
are one who can only learn the hard way, say, by sticking your finger
into a flame, you are of course free to burn your own fingers--but NOT
if you are holding someone else's hand, which is exactly the situation
if you belong to a coven. For its own self-preservation, a coven must
therefore retain the right, as a last resort, to expel (and cut loose
from the karma of) any member who persists in interfering in other
people's lives without their permission or, of course, who attempts
even blacker workings.
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13. Always rememberthat allmankind and allcreatures areequally
childrenof theGoddess;therefore neverboastor threaten,or
do anything that mightdisgrace Her oryour brothers and
sisters in the Craft.
Toblatherthoughtlesslyaboutthe Craft,especiallytopersons
who have no business knowing about your coven's affairs, not only
drains your own energy and that of your coven, but also is a form of
boasting, of using the Craft for self-aggrandizement, that will get
you into the bad headspace law #3 warns about. More obviously, threat-
ening to "hex" someone, even though you THINK you have no intention of
doing so, violates the intent of laws 1 through 4, because you are
playing games with the Lady, who just might decide to act on the
threat, and because you are using the Craft (especially if you are
known to be a Witch) to influence another against his will and to get
your own way; furthermore, making such a threat reinforces the false
impression most people have of the Craft, and so disgraces the God-
dess. Again, since anyone could learn to do anything you can do, being
a Witch doesn't make you any better than anyone else; put on airs, and
the Lady will deflate you. Perhaps a good rule of thumb about discus-
sing the Craft with outsiders is this: once you are convinced that
someone's interest is sincere, then answer questions, fully and
freely; but don't just volunteer information that has in no way been
asked for, else you risk burdening that person with more information
than he or she is able to cope with.
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